Obama meets with Washington Post reporter who was held for 18 months on spying charges in notorious Iranian prison
- Jason Rezaian was held in an Iranian prison for 18 months as a 'spy'
- But his freedom, and that of four other Americans, was secured in January
- Today he was 'welcomed home' in a brief meeting with President Obama
- Rezaian and the other prisoners were exchanged for U.S.-held Iranians
President Obama today met with Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who was freed in a prisoner exchange with Iran in January.
Obama met briefly with the reporter, who was detained for more than 18 months on spying charges in Iran's notorious Evin prison, at the State Department.
The President was at the department to give a speech to ambassadors at the Chief of Missions Conference.
Meeting: President Obama, pictured today at the State Department, met Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who was detained for 18 months in Iran on spying charges and freed in a prisoner exchange
Free: American-Iranian Jason Rezaian (left) was freed from Iranian prison in January; his Iranian wife, Yeganeh Salehi, joined him on his return trip
The White House didn't release any other information about the meeting between Obama and Rezaian, but press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters, including those from the Washington Post, that the president and his team 'dedicated a lot of time and energy to securing Jason’s freedom.'
'The president was pleased to have an opportunity to welcome him home' to the United States, Earnest said.
Rezaian, who holds joint U.S.-Iranian citizenship, was born in Marin, California, in 1976. Fascinated with his father's homeland, he went on to study Persian culture at university, and later moved to Tehran to work as a foreign correspondent. He was appointed bureau chief by the Washington Post in 2012.
In 2014, he was arrested by Iranian authorities and spent nine months in solitary confinement, reportedly suffering mental and physical problems as a result.
He underwent a secret trial in October 2015, when he was convicted of espionage, although no details about his sentence or any evidence against him was ever released by authorities.
Rezaian was released along with three other Americans - Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, former US Marine Amir Hekmati, and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari - in January as part of a controversial prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Iran.
Separate from that exchange, Iran also released a fifth imprisoned American, Matthew Trevithick. The U.S. gave up seven imprisoned Iranians.
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Intervention: Obama shakes hands with Secretary of State John Kerry, left, at the conference today. Kerry personally intervened to get Salehi and Rezaian's mom out of Iran when it seemed they too might be detained
The swap took place just hours before world leaders began implementing a deal with Iran regarding its nuclear development program.
In an interview with AFP, Rezaian's Iranian wife, Yeganeh Salehi, told how getting her and Rezaian's mother out of the country was a 'war,' and that they spent hours being shuffled around airport halls by Iranian Revolutionary Guards before being allowed to join the freed prisoners aboard the plane.
'At some point I told [Rezaian's mother], "Mary, somebody wants us out of the picture and there is a reason for it," Salehi told AFP. 'Something is wrong.'
Eventually Secretary of State John Kerry called his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, after which the Iranian prosecutor general issued an order allowing Salehi and Mary Rezaian to board the plane to Germany, the Washington Post reported.
In his speech to the ambassadors, Obama said that he's confident he can make significant progress on foreign policy in the next 10 months, and that he looks forward to his historic trip to Cuba, which starts Sunday.
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